Get over it, Carr tells jobless lawyers

Premier Bob Carr has a blunt message for the hundreds of Sydney lawyers out of work because of his Government's law reforms: "Get retrained and start another job."

He was unmoved by the report that the entire 14th floor of Wardell Chambers in Martin Place, employing 23 barristers and support staff, will close its doors on December 31.

Offering no apology for the jobs shake-out in law practices following his legislative assault on "the culture of litigation", Mr Carr said: "The fact is there will be fewer jobs for lawyers, but with their education they are well placed to go into retraining.

"In this modern day and age a lot of workers have had to be retrained.

"Lawyers are not a protected species, and their habits of over-litigation were adding to the cost of doing business in NSW.

"We couldn't have allowed it to go on."

Mr Carr claimed that while excessive litigation had lined the pockets of lawyers, it had resulted in the closure of community events, the wrecking of the workers' compensation system and could have put thousands of people out of work.

Over the past 18 months the Carr Government has introduced a series of major reforms on public liability to reduce the financial impact on insurance companies and to slow down the escalating rate of premiums.

The Civil Liability (Personal Responsibility) Act and its amendments introduced caps and thresholds on compensation and shifted the balance towards greater personal responsibility to avoid long and expensive court cases.

The result has been a sharp drop in casework for solicitors and barristers specialising in personal injury cases.

"We reformed it," Mr Carr said. "But I make no apologies for cleaning up this culture of over-litigation, of reining it in.

"Everyone was suing everyone and trying to get a pot of money at the end of the rainbow.

"And it was just bankrupting Australia, so we cleaned it up.

"Now workers are getting more out of the workers' comp system and they are going to continue to get more," he said. "But it does mean less going to lawyers. I know where I prefer it to go."

NSW Bar Association president Ian Harrison, SC, said last week that a quarter to a third of all barristers would disappear or have their practices adversely affected within the next six to 18 months.

The Wardell Chambers floor closure is linked directly to the winding up of the NSW Workers Compensation Court this month and restrictions on injury claims under the Government's reforms.

NSW Law Society president Robert Benjamin said 30 to 40 per cent of the state's 18,000 solicitors were involved in personal injury and compensation work and would be hit by the Carr Government's law changes.